The Mimaasaka perspective

[un824 at FREENET.VICTORIA.BC.CA]

Namaste,

Vidyasankar writes:

>............................As far as advaita vedAntins
>are concerned, the ritual actions are de-emphasized, but the vedas are
>still held to be the only source by which Atman = brahman is known. No
>kind of perceptual or inferential knowledge will ever reveal this.

What about the direct realization of many mystics who lived during times
when they could not have encountered the vedas?  Is it the orthodox view of
Advaita Vedanta that these people must have been mistaken simply because
they had not heard the vedas?

If the essential universal truth can be directly realized outside of
contact with the vedas then how can the vedas be considered to be "the only
source by which Atman = brahman is known"?


Allan Curry